Me, my backpack and the world: Cuddling koalas and feeding kangaroos

Ten of us got up early on our day off to go to a koala sanctuary called Lone Pine. It's further up the Brisbane river, out of the city. We had a boat trip for a bit more than an hour. Beautiful! Nice and sunny on the top deck, and very friendly staff. And of course a recorded voice telling us "interesting" facts.

Girls from my class on the river boat, Karoline, Carina, Nina, Line:

The koala sanctuary is full of koalas, as you already might understand, but also other typicalAustralian animals: fresh water crocodiles, platypus, dingoes, golden possum, kangaroos, wombats and kookaburras. I remember we sang a song called "Kookaburra" when I sang in a choir as a teenager. Originally an Australian nursery rhyme, but a very funny and different song when all the different voices from our choir were put together. Unfortunately I didn't find a good version on You Tube.

Look how cute they are. In wild you shouldn't cuddle them, but these are all tamed:

To hold and cuddle a koala we had to pay 16$ extra, but as real tourists we gladly paid it. The money goes back to Lone Pine, which is self-funded. Paying for the cuddling and a photo helps build new enclosures, plant eucalyptus trees and pay for animal research. Here is my picture taken by Carina:

And here are four of the girls, Stine, Malin, Marte, Nina:

I could've taken pictures with more animals, like snakes, birds and crocodiles, but it was so expensive. I'd love to hold a snake once. Maybe I should've done it. Maybe I was stupid to let my chance go. But I bought some animal food and got to feed as many kangaroos and wallabies as I liked. They live in quite a big area. Looked like they have a very chill life. Imagine how it is to be fed by tourists all day long, lay in the shade, take a nap and just...relax. Just looke at these guys here: